Explaining Africa
by mkcrl120
Summary: Xander's going to Africa? Whatever persuaded him to go there.
1. Explaining Africa 1

Fic: Explaining Africa.  
  
Author: mkcrl120  
  
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.  
  
Summary: Couldn't get this idea out of my head - doesn't end how I'd originally intended when I was thinking about it.  
  
Setting: After season 7 of BUffy - pre season 5 of Angel. The remaining Scoobs are setting up in Cleveland, the Fang Gang have began to take over W&H and informed the Scoobs that Cordy is in a coma. Assume that when the Scoobs and the Fang Gang last spoke Spike hadn't shown up in ghostly form.  
  
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)

========================

Xander looked around the internet cafe. 'I always knew I'd end up having to contact them sooner or later. Just couldn't leave them without letting them know that I'm alive and well - I owe them that much at least.'  
  
He'd left at the beginning of the week with the intention of getting away for a while. He'd had enough of fighting the good fight, least for the time being. After what happened to Anya, and Angel's report on Cordelia's current state he'd become very aware of his own mortality. 'Seven years Xan, seven long years, you've survived everything the hellmouth chose to throw at you and managed to save the world a few times... not bad going for a lowly zeppo even if I do think so myself.'  
  
He bought a cup of coffee then moved to a terminal to begin what he'd been putting off since yesterday.  
  
He opened up his hotmail account and began to compose the email to Giles. THE email that would finally allow him to distance himself from the Scoobs... at least for a while. 'I can't see myself staying away too long - Willow, Dawn, Giles, Buffy, they're my family... all I've got left now really. Yeah we've had our arguments over the years, some pretty major ones with Buffy in particular,' the thought brought a smile to his face 'but now it's my turn to do the time away thing'.   
  
----  
  
To: Giles  rupert.giles w...  
  
From: Xander  xander.harris h...  
  
Subject: Road Trip - the sequel.  
  
Giles,  
  
I'm unsure how to start this, firstly I suppose I should apologise for the haste in which I left. I hope my abrupt disappearance a few days ago didn't cause too much uproar, it is possible no-one even noticed - I don't know I wasn't there which is kinda the point. (Betcha didn't even know I knew how to use words such as uproar and abrupt eh? - don't worry it didn't come naturally this is like the third time I've tried to write this thing down)  
  
I've set up this email account so you can contact me. I'm not sure how often I'll be checking in with it but I'm hoping for a few times a week at least.  
  
I know you may have questions as to my whereabouts and my reasons for leaving. Basically at the moment I am in Washington (I was going to comment on me being quite the world-traveller then I realised who I was emailing and you'd hopped the Atlantic a couple of times in the past year or so).  
  
You may not have been aware but both myself and Anya both had life insurance cover (Doing what we used to, could we have really afforded to skip it?). Both of us being in good health the cover was affordable and gave us a good return in the case of accidental death (Good thing they only ask about type of work you're in, smoker or non-smoker, family history and that sort of thing eh? Don't think we could have afforded it if we'd had to mention we chased the undead around graveyards for a hobby).  
  
Recently I recieved the lump sum for Anya's accidental death (As it was during the 'earthquake' that hit Sunnydale they didn't ask many questions - guess they can be tactful eh?). I wasn't aware that I was still down as the recipient for Anya's will (until I recieved hers I guess I didn't even realise I hadn't changed mine since the 'wedding' either). Between the insurance and Anya's accounts (The girl was always good with money, that fact was never in doubt) it turned out to be quite a sum.  
  
Truthfully, I was contemplating just disappearing for a few months. Get my head together that sort of thing. We've been fighting this war for seven years and it was only after we HAD left Sunnydale and started to set-up in Cleveland that I realised I'd only left once before and that was after graduation. (Though I doubt you could call it leaving as I never got out of the state - some road trip). I'm intending to complete my 'See all 50 states' plan and  
  
----  
  
Xander stopped typing. He knew they'd be concerned about him and if all he was going to do was take a vacation then he'd be certain someone would want to join him 'Certain or hopeful? Jury's out on that one. Wills probably like to come but likely she'd bring Kennedy, Dawn was quite likely too' though at 17 he wasn't sure that her travelling across the country with him was such a good plan.  
  
He needed something better than that. Something he could explain to Giles that would not only ensure that no-one joined him but that Giles might not even give them the full story. With that he deleted the last sentence and began again.  
  
----  
  
I was intending to complete my 'See all 50 States' plan that I attempted after graduation. I mean this time I had money so I wouldn't be relying my uncle's old car to survive a long journey. This time I could do it - properly even - actually enjoying my vacation instead of having to work in odd jobs at each stop to afford things like gas, food and board.  
  
----  
  
He stopped again, and thought back to how originally he'd liked the idea of working in each town, actually getting to know the lifestyles of each place instead of just doing the tourist-y thing. 'Though I hadn't done a family holiday since I was 13,' he reasoned 'mind you even back then my parents version of the tourist thing was to leave me in a motel room with drink and sweets while they went out to look for either somewhere to drink or somewhere to gamble whatever savings they'd managed to collect in the two week plan prior to arranging the holiday' he thought bitterly.  
  
Thinking of his parents made him wonder if they were alive, 'They hadn't been listed as those dead when I'd called the Earthquake Helpline number that had been set up. And if they are how the hell could I track them down even if I wanted to... I suppose I could try calling some of my relatives and see if they've turned up there... but then again that'd be warning my relatives that they might turn up unexpectedly on their doorsteps. Not the sort of fate I'd be looking forward to if I'd been given a heads-up.'  
  
He resumed typing.  
  
----  
  
But I decided against it. I felt that I had to do something important with Anya's money, something that she'd have wanted me to do. Nothing really came to mind, during her demon years (all one thousand plus of them) she'd visited everywhere and done most things. She'd always said that places changes and times and trends differ but people were always the same. Well actually she said 'Some people get on with each other and live fruitful lives, others hate and try to kill one another, friendships grow, families fall out and sometimes reconcile, couples fall in love then the man does something wrong and then I turn up to make them pay.' classic Anya eh Giles?. Hope that brought as much of a smile to your face when reading it as it did to mine as I wrote it.  
  
So the only other thing that came to me as important was making sure the others would be okay while I was gone. I know you have access to all the watcher funds now, and are probably intending to make a trip to the motherland soon to see what you have got in the area of remaining watchers (See I did listen to your lectures when you were discussing future plans and what we had to achieve and all that). And I know that there were enough slayers so that I wouldn't be needed on actual patrols other than as a sort of 'watcher' - I've noticed none of the old gang really participate in patrols anymore, well with the exception of Faith, that they all just make comments about the Potentials... must stop thinking of them like that... the Slayers and give them advice such as watching each others backs, stop dropping their left and general stuff like that. So it had to be something no-one else was thinking of... that's what I'm good at right? Thinking of the things everyone else overlooks... heh... just remembered in high school when Will was trying to explain mathematics to me and I was telling her my version of the little er.. reminder-things that people make up to memorise formulae and stuff, she looked at me in disbelief and she'd asked me if I ever thought like a normal person. I know it doesn't sound like a good memory but this was such a Willow moment... she'd said it without realising I'd hear her mumbling and then when she looked at me she went into full on willow-babble-apology mode.   
  
It was a good memory for me, of more innocent times when the biggest worry was whether or not I was going to have to repeat a year of school and become seperated from my friends. Of times before we did get seperated as they went to college and I went through job after job, before relationships got serious enough to involve and altar in anyway never minding leaving a girl at one, before Buffy died and Willow had yet to start dabbling in Dark Arts, before Spike...  
  
----  
  
He paused. This was it, the excuse he'd been trying to think of for the last few hours. He tasted his coffee... it'd gone cold so he left it.  
  
It was starting to form in his brain, he could sense it. An innocent comment that filled the gap and made the excuse he'd been looking for.  
  
'Of course its well known that I've never trusted Spike...' he could use this, and this was something Giles would accept as a possible necessity and wouldn't tell the girls about. Typing quickly resumed.  
  
----  
  
...started his fixation on Buffy.  
  
Spike's what I want to tell you about.  
  
Basically, and no shock here I assure you, I don't trust Spike. Told you it was no big shocker. Though maybe it should be considering he's dead.... or as I'm looking at it... currently dead.  
  
You see my reasoning is that we thought pretty much the same thing with Angel. He got sacrificed to save the world, yet ta daaa, there he was back in reality a few months later. I've just got a horrible feeling that we won't have seen the last of Spike; I for one, couldn't be that lucky, if it turns out we have seen the back of him then the week that gets proved once and for all I'm buying lottery tickets for everyone.  
  
You see Spike, allegedly, had a soul. Didn't see much difference myself, doubtful you did as you were willing to help Wood attempt to stake him (and sorry but what a dumbass plan to go about it that turned out to be - maybe Wood should have been distracting Buffy so you coulda staked him).  
  
Now, and I know this isn't going to be a good thought for you, do you think Buffy and Spike did it? Personally I'm not sure, I know she spent a lot of time with him and I was watching for the signs that their relationship had picked up where it left off.  
  
----  
  
Xander felt ill at the thought of exactly where it left off. But he wasn't sure if Giles knew about that incident and he definitely wasn't going to tell him via email if he hadn't done.  
  
But he was amazed at how easily this lie was coming to him.   
  
----  
  
Sorry about that and in a way it wasn't necessary for me to bring it up as it may not be really important if they did or not as it wasn't a gypsy soul curse that Spike got.  
  
But what I'm getting at is that we don't know what, if anything, it could be that might cause Spike to lose his soul. But unlike with Angel we're no longer kids (no offence meant) and we're not dealing in the dark with the first ever souled vampire. This time we should be aware of possible implications and be researching to ensure that he is safe. I admit this is something I'd thought about during the last year but at worst I figured he loses his soul and we're back to having the same annoying-chipped-vampire that we'd learned to live with (Sorry to keep going on about this but can you honestly say you saw ANY difference in behaviour other than he stopped threatening to kill everyone when he gets the 'bloody chip' out). Once the chip got removed however it became more serious, and if we hadn't have had major problems with the First I'd have thought about doing something then.   
  
Luckily the sheer number of active slayers allows me to act on it now.  
  
So it comes down to this, I managed to get some info from Buffy and Dawn about how Spike got his soul back, they mentioned a demon in Africa and some tests but didn't chose to elaborate - whether they knew more or not wasn't apparent - I was able to ask at the time as it seemed appropriate considering everything, but to check again now might arouse their suspicions. I confronted Anya about this and she had some contacts in the area that might be able to help us, apparently there are a lot of these demons that put people through tests in order to 'win' something that seems completely unattainable using normal methods. Some humans have done it for wealth, success, etc. The odd thing is that it differed from demon to demon, some were completely honest about what they promised, others cheated on the requests (she explained it as kinda like a King Midas thing - careful what you wish for and all that); as for how long it lasted - some required continuing belief/faith/sacrifices to be made in their honour, others granted the powers/requests for a set time, others the spells failed when the demon died; there were literally hundreds of options most of which I had forgotten (I think she was trying to give me the A to Z of demon granted wishes - I'm pretty sure my mind blocked most of it out).  
  
As you can probably tell, Anya loved to talk about her fellow demons and all the things they could do. But talking to her about this scared me more than when I was comparing Spike's soul to Angel's. The thing that could cause Spike to lose his soul might not be connected to anything Spike did.  
  
We need to track down what sort of demon Spike got his soul from and we need to know about any and all possible escape clauses that exist.  
  
That's why I've chosen to GO to Africa. I'm going to find out what I can.   
  
I'm not certain if you should tell Buffy about this (and not telling Buffy really involves not telling anyone she could force to tell her if she suspected they were keeping any secrets from her). It's really your decision now. My choice would be to not tell her. I'm only telling you so that you understand why I've gone and why I need to do this alone. I'm not stupid Giles, I think I can do this, and if I run into trouble... well an email or call to you and you'll send a slayer or two my way to help out eh?   
  
I'll email again once I arrive in Africa, I'll be in the country arranging a few things before I go.  
  
Xander.  
  
PS: If I do require help, or if you do decide to send a search party it might be better (and the fact that I actually believe this scares me a little) if its headed by Faith.  
  
----  
  
Xander hit send and logged off, then walked into the bathroom and poured his coffee away.   
  
As he left the cafe he took a look around and then started to walk down the street. He'd hated lying to Giles like that but felt it was necessary to buy himself the time to decide what to do with his life. He was walking and thinking about what he'd written. 'I didn't lie so much as expanded on the truth. Buffy hadn't told me anything but she did tell Dawn, and Dawn did tell me when she wanted to know more about Angel.' He thought back to when he tried to explain about Spike and Angel to Dawn. How although they could tell the difference between Angel and Angelus, according to Giles, Angel hadn't been very useful immediately after regaining his soul. There were no stories of a vampire helping out. The watchers had believed it may have been possible that Angelus had died, as the Scourge of Europe had split, Dru and Spike going one way, Darla returning to the Master. Of Angelus there had been simply no sign.   
  
'Not the most encouraging words I could have told her, but she did ask for the truth and she was the same age I was when I got sucked into Buffy's little world' he reasoned. 'At least she won't be out risking life and limb like we did, there are plenty of slayers to do that'. But even as the thought entered his head he knew it wasn't true, 'No, she'll only be risking life and limb if Spike comes back and they all trust him completely.'  
  
Spike's predicament with a soul had come up in one solitary conversation with Anya. It hadn't gone into as much depth as he'd led Giles to believe but Anya's comment had been what sparked the thoughts he emailed Giles. He remembered her comments vividly "You'd better hope that Spike's soul doesn't depend on his getting a happy, as I doubt that him and the Slayer would show much will power." Dammit, she'd been right. And what he'd done... oh yeah, he remembered now, it'd been before he lost his eye, it'd been before the stupid un-thought-out plans of attack, it'd been before he'd lost some of his faith in Buffy. He'd done what he always did at the time, he'd defended her. And in the stupidest way possible.   
  
_Flashback   
  
"An, Buffy's not going to go back to Spike again, not after what he attempted to do."   
  
"You don't know that. They could be at it right now."   
  
"They wouldn't. SHE wouldn't! She's just using him as extra muscle and to see what info she can get off him."  
  
"You can't be sure."  
  
"Spike and Buffy are not going at it like Rabbits!!!"  
  
End Flashback _  
  
Yeah, they'd been arguing, and it was probably both of their faults. But she knew that mentioning Buffy and Spike and sex in the same sentence would remind him that Buffy and Spike had done it before, and she and Spike had done it before. So he'd retaliated and mentioned rabbits so she'd leave as fast as she could.  
  
'Dammit, if I'd just taken it, if I'd just accepted the argument, then I could have found out more about restoring souls. Then I might have been able to have all the answers already. But I couldn't have known that the next time I needed this info she wouldn't be around to provide it.'  
  
Xander stopped suddenly in the street, almost forcing the man walking behind to collide into him. Xander turned to face him and smiled "Sorry about that. Just realised something... you know how it is." The man just scowled at him. 'Charming' Xander thought and walked over to the nearest wall to lean on it while he dealt with his thoughts.  
  
'Why the hell am I thinking about this like its something I'm intending to do? It was just an excuse to get everyone off my back for a while... Yeah it's something they should probably be looking into... I should probably email Giles and tell him to assign someone he trusts to...'  
  
"Crap." He said shocking an old woman who was walking by. "Sorry."  
  
'Crap crap crap crap and treble crap!!! Giles won't assign someone cos even if he agrees this is something worth doing he already thinks I'm going to do it... at best he'd assign someone to go with me and then they'd realise I had no intentions of going. CRAP!!!!'  
  
'Well Xan, you've managed to do it again. Driven yourself into a corner. Genius'  
  
He picked himself of the wall, sighed as he accepted the inevitable and began to walk towards the hotel he'd been staying at.   
  
'Guess a few months in Africa could be considered getting away from it all.' Now he just needed to get some things sorted and arrange a flight. Xander smiled as he made his way into the lobby of his hotel, 'Knew I'd never be able to leave for long...'

========================

The End


	2. Explaining Africa 2

Fic: Explaining Africa 2.  
  
Author: mkcrl120  
  
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.  
  
Summary: Okay, well the other idea I couldn't get out of my head demanded a sequel. Now I've got an idea for a third story in this little mini-series I've started and I'm scared to go there.  
  
Setting: After season 7 of Buffy - pre season 5 of Angel. The remaining Scoobs are setting up in Cleveland, the Fang Gang have began to take over W&H and informed the Scoobs that Cordy is in a coma. Assume that when the Scoobs and the Fang Gang last spoke Spike hadn't shown up in ghostly form. Oh and probably the same day as Explaining Africa 1.  
  
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)

========================

Giles re-read the email and poured himself a drink.  
  
'Well in some ways telling them all about this would help ease the girls worry, especially Dawn and Willow.' Though Dawn had been the first to notice, Willow was by far the most worried. Faith hadn't helped in that area either. 'Willow seems to be under the impression that Xander's going to do something suicidal, she has known him the longest, was it something I should have been thinking of?'   
  
'Dawn seemed to have complete faith in whatever Xander was up to. She even stated that he'd contact us when he felt the need to. Looks like she was right.'. He remembered back to the day 2 days ago when they'd first realised xander had gone.  
  
_Flashback   
  
Giles had entered the room to discover Willow shouting at a group of the younger slayers.  
  
"So no-one's seen him since Saturday!!! Is that what you're telling me?"  
  
None of the slayers would meet her eyes.  
  
"Red, look Xander can handle himself. The guy's got like a lifetime of experience from living on the hellmouth." This one from Faith from where she was perched on the table, 'Why can't that girl use chairs or ordinary furniture?'.  
  
"He hasn't got a lifetime!!! He's got seven years, and he hasn't got backup."  
  
"He lived there his whole life didn't he? Okay so he was only in the know from when B turned up, but he somehow managed to not become a snack for over a decade before that right? Face it, Xan's got instincts girl. He'll be okay."  
  
"Face it Willow, Xander'll come to us when he needs to come home. Or he'll contact us or something." Dawn had entered the conversation. As Giles looked around he realised that some of the younger slayers looked like they were itching to join in the conversation now, though admittedly they still looked like they would raise their hands first.   
  
'Dammit, we need Slayers not some frightened children who are too scared to join in when the 'adults' are talking. Though to be fair it hasn't exactly been a civil conversation so far.' He was about to say something when Buffy walked into the room.  
  
"'Kay Willow, I've checked with Andrew he hasn't seen him for two days, that makes it Sunday as last sighting."  
  
'Maybe we are getting somewhere at last' Giles considered, and then he heard...  
  
"See Red, get a few more sightings like that and it'll turn out he's in this room having this conversation with us."  
  
'And maybe we aren't.'  
  
"THIS IS NOT A JOKE!!"  
  
Buffy came to Willow's defence. "Jeez Faith, heartless much?"  
  
"No B. Realistic. Face it, boyto..." Giles watched Faith quickly glance at Wood wondering if he'd noticed her slip, "Xan just needed some space so he went and got it... Maybe he just needed to drown his sorrows or get laid or something... Dawn's right, he'll come home when he's ready."   
  
"This isn't his home, this is a new Hellmouth, one where he hasn't lived all his life and doesn't know like the back of his hand!" Willow countered.  
  
Giles began to suspect Willow might be right about Xander not having the home-field advantage, he believed Faith might have thought the same, when her only comment was "Beginning to wish I'd gone with him..." then Giles watched in amusement as Faith quickly covered herself with a sort of apology to Wood. "The drinking that is... not the going to find a lay part."  
  
Giles observed as Wood just stared at her looking for any sign of falsehood in her eyes. 'This has been going on for a while, I think Wood's starting to realise that the bad girl image is the only version of Faith that she'll let out to the surface, and I think he's growing tired of it cos he can't get past it, I think he was expecting to beat it down and be the one to 'save' Faith... nothing I can do for him there as if I knew anything on how to get past it I'd have used it myself to get her to open up a bit... whereas Faith... I'm not entirely sure what Faith's hanging on for. If I had to guess it might be so that she doesn't tread down the 'get some and get gone' path that she informed many of us was the only way to deal with men. She may also be hanging on as this is her first real relationship since I've known her, hell for all I know this could be her first real relationship ever...' As Giles continued to muse on the Faith scenario he was interrupted by Buffy saying "Yes."  
  
'Yes what?' he thought as he turned around, 'Oh my god, one of them actually did it.'  
  
Vi slowly put her hand down. "Couldn't we like find Xander by... errmmm... checking out all his favourite haunts that sort of thing?"  
  
Rona chipped in with "Ask around see if anyone's seen him or something?"  
  
Buffy looked at them like they were from another planet, but Willow beat her to the response. "What favourite places? We've been here a grand total of two weeks. If any of you can name ONE place that Xander's been to more than once we'll go there right now... anyone, anyone at all? And who are we gonna ask? No-one outside of this our group knows him and we've asked all of them, can anyone name anyone else he talks to?"  
  
Giles thought back and realised he wasn't that sure if he could name anyone HERE that Xander talks to much anymore. But he watched amused as Dawn responded. "Rona's right though, Xander's pretty noticable - unless Cleveland's got a lot of one-eyed males hanging around someone may remember him. That said if Cleveland has got a lot of one-eyed men around I vote for leaving right now as the place sounds pretty dangerous to me."  
  
Giles figured that if anyone else had made comments about Xander like that there may have had to have been a beat down sometime soon, but Dawn could get away with it. He just about caught Vi's whisper to Rona "If all the one-eyed men look like Xander I vote we stay til we can bag a few.", and Rona's giggles 'Oh God I'd thought I'd got past this when they all graduated'.  
  
"Its a Hellmouth Dawn" was Buffy's reply "It is dangerous. But Rona's plan is the best one we've got, time to start asking around people."   
  
"Right split up, Willow you're with me, we're gonna take the slayers to check out the nightclubs and cinemas and so on, Giles" Giles swung around to face Buffy "You take Faith, Wood and Andrew and check out the bars."  
  
End Flashback_  
  
But Buffy's actions hadn't come up with any clues that night nor the night after. Earlier today Willow had gotten more and more certain that something had happened to Xander. Faith had tried to reason that there was nothing that could have happened to Xander that he wasn't able to handle. Willow had countered that the local big bad using him as bait or maybe killed him to send us a message. Faith responded that they hadn't seen a big bad, and that the only nightlife that was around were the regular vamps and so on that you find in any city, then she'd attacked Giles stating that Cleveland was essentially less of a hellmouth than LA or Boston and could they remove the title or call it 'Cleveland the Lamest Hellmouth in the World'. Willow had responded with several paranoid theories that involved the big bad knowing we were in town and keeping a low profile, then she attacked Faith stating Faith's latest comments had jinxed us all and Xander was sure to be dead now. This was the point Giles had chosen to leave the room, the last thing he heard was Faith's comment about it being so quiet that they hadn't even discovered where the demon bar was and **everywhere **had one of those.  
  
It was after leaving the room because of the argument that Giles had intended to log onto his computer to see if the council had any expertise in tracking people that they could use when he discovered xander's email.   
  
That had been an hour and three shots of whiskey ago.   
  
'Dammit' Giles thought. 'I wish he'd come to me before starting off on his little errand. That way I could have stated that I was the one to send him on official business and stopped this whole thing before it managed to reach the current stages.'   
  
He sat down and re-read his reply.  
  
-----  
  
To: Xander  xander.harris h...   
  
From: Giles  rupert.giles w...   
  
Subject: RE: Road Trip - the sequel.  
  
Xander,  
  
Glad to hear you are well. Possible no-one even noticed? You wouldn't believe the commotion that's gone on in your absence.   
  
As you may imagine most of the newer Slayers (and yes you must stop refering to them as Potentials) didn't know quite what to make of the scenes that were the result of your unscheduled vacation - especially those that were'nt with us back in Sunnydale and honestly didn't seem to know quite what you did... heh heh, you'll probably find this funny I've had accusations that you were a contractor assigned to help us with building the property to slayer standards - this girl demanded that I talk to your firm and state you'd gone missing before setting up the new gym; others believing you were a watcher and thought you were off 'recruiting' newly discovered Slayers; two other girls didn't even know your name and weren't aware that you were the one everyone was talking about, they seemed to refer you as the hunky Snake Bleskin.. (Blaskin? I can't remember) type of guy. Faith assures me you wouldn't take offence at this but so far I've been unable to figure out what they mean, Blaskin is not a breed of snake that I am aware of. Maybe you could explain it.  
  
As for the others well its kind of been a split decision, with Buffy and Willow believing that you need help (admittedly Willow more than Buffy) and need to be located immediately (I think Buffy thought you just needed alone time after Anya... after Anya - much like she seems to have shut herself off from most of the group regarding the Spike situation - I think she just wanted to ensure that **that **was the reason and then she'd let you be, Willow went through every paranoid conspiracy theory you could name and probably some you couldn't).   
  
Dawn of course had complete faith in you and that you'd call or turn up when you were ready, personally I am so glad she was correct on this. The other person on Dawn's side was surprisingly Faith, though I think she was more similar to Buffy than Dawn (don't ever tell Buffy I told you that), in that she also thought you just needed space but she gave you credit to handle most things and to know who to call if you didn't.   
  
I think I played the referree role quite well considering how heated the debates got.  
  
But anyway, back to your point.   
  
I agree with you on the Spike scenario. It may be worth discussing with Angel about his own actions when he first had a soul, as you said there seems to be almost a century worth of history missing there. If that's how long it took for Angel to come to terms with it then can we allow the same for Spike. But unfortunately the same is true, if Spike comes back and he doesn't harm anyone then does that give us reason enough to stake him considering what he could be capable of when he has come to grips with it. I for one, have enough issues with Angel, but have to force myself to rise above them so that I can acknowledge the good he does do currently. Can we do any less for Spike?  
  
Re-thinking that, if Angel had strayed a few times in the past in order to be the person he is now does that excuse what he did? If Spike started to do the same could we risk it when we couldn't be sure of the outcome? I'm afraid this whole thing is causing my reasoning to keep going around in circles. As a watcher I was trained to think long term and the big picture, unfortunately you saw how this can be displayed in people who only do that, people like Travers. But all of you changed that, fighting alongside you all back in the good ole days as you say made me re-think those opinions made me realise that everyone had a story and every single person counts in the long run. That was fine when I was just a field watcher, but now I find myself at the head of the council I need to learn how to blend the 'long term' thinking with the 'caring about the people' thinking to try to make the council start off on the best foot in the best direction I can.  
  
I'm afraid that I cannot come up with anything for certain, even if I could get the full backstory of Angel's indeterminate years then who's opinions do I count? Don't worry this isn't something I intend for you to answer, nor is it something I intend to shoulder alone.   
  
I think you had the best idea, all we can do for the moment is be as fully aware as we can be. So continue with your research into the soul scenario, I will be getting watchers back in England to start researching different methods of soul return, as I you say if they can be trusted having a vampire on your team can prove very useful - but as we said if they can be trusted - this is one of those long-term projects that we need to look into, but as to current issues there are two souled vampires that we know of - one isn't our responsibility (at least while he continues to walk the correct path anyway), the other most likely could be - anything to be decided should your investigation discover that his current method of ensoulment is less reliable than the gypsy curse will be done on your return as you present all the available information.   
  
I will be transferring funds to your own account as a loaner so that you do not spend your own money on something the council needs to be aware of.  
  
On a side note, I'm extremely proud of you and how you are attempting to deal with the possibility of a future Spike scenario, I felt from your previous email that you may have had something to prove. Believe me my boy when I state that you have nothing to prove to me. Should you wish to continue your quest alone do so with my blessing, should you wish colleagues to aid you in your quest simply name them and I will do my best to 'persuade' them to join you.  
  
Good luck,  
  
Giles  
  
----  
  
Pouring himself a final shot of whiskey he pressed send.  
  
He took the glass raised it and made his toast "Xander, here's to your unofficial entry into the watcher's council", then down his drink in one. 'Wonder if he'd accept if I did ask?'  
  
'Sometimes I wonder if he wanted to be more involved like his friends were or liked the distance that working in construction allowed him.'   
  
With that final thought he went into the other room to find the argument still ongoing.  
  
Dawn's high pitched cry was the most obvious over the general racket "He isn't dead. Willow will you please stop staying that!"  
  
"How do you know? How are you sure? Answer me that?"  
  
"Jeez Red I think we need to calm down a little here, Little-D ain't your enemy."  
  
Giles began to polish his glassed as the arguments continued around him, 'Sometimes I wish I could be involved in something seperate to this. Ripper ole chum, it might be time to buy a guitar again.'  
  
"WILL YOU ALL BE QUIET!"  
  
Silence followed, apart from a few younger slayer who were muttering between themselves, Giles glared at them until they were silent 'You've gotta be smarter than that girls, if when I shout two experienced slayers and possibly the world's most powerful witch obey then maybe that's a hint that you should too.'  
  
"As I was going to stay, I've just recieved a phone call from Xander."   
  
Pandemonium began with the "What did he say?", "Is he alright?" and "Where is he?"s. Giles swore he heard a "Snake's okay?" somewhere in the background.  
  
Giles composed himself and prepared himself for the lie, "He's chosen to take a vacation to mourn Anya's passing properly. I've asked him to run a few errands for me.."  
  
This time it was Buffy, "Giles you can't do that if he ne..."  
  
Giles cut her off "I know, they weren't important errands, just enough so that he'd be checking in with people who work for me every few days, this way we know he's safe without it looking like we're checking up on him so to speak."  
  
"Sneaky, watchman very sneaky."  
  
And with that a hint of normalcy overset the proceedings, as normal as they got for Giles anyway. "Thank you Faith, now in Xander's absence it seems that we will be an experienced person down for chaperoning Team C's slaying schedule so Buffy and Faith if you could divid...." 

========================

The End 


	3. Explaining Africa 3

Fic: Explaining Africa 3.  
  
Author: mkcrl120  
  
Disclaimer: All the characters mentioned in this story belong to Joss Whedon or Mutant Enemy or some other people. I own nothing and wrote this just to get it out of my system.  
  
Summary: Looks like the third and final installment of my little story to me... yep I was right it is.  
  
Setting: After season 7 of Buffy - pre season 5 of Angel. The remaining Scoobs are setting up in Cleveland, the Fang Gang have began to take over W&H and informed the Scoobs that Cordy is in a coma. A few weeks after Explaining Africa 2 - you'll be able to find out where in AtS season it is as you read it.  
  
Rating: 15 by English standards (mainly for language)

========================

'Another day another failed attempt to get anywhere' Xander mused to himself. 'The entire continent has so much history and so many legends that its practically impossible to find anything out.'   
  
The latest expedition had resulted in him being laughed at. 'I think they're purposely sending me to the tourist places to see all the 'medicine men'in action. If I hear one more your future is uncertain comment.'   
  
'There's either no magic here or more likely I'm not a welcome visitor to any of it.'  
  
Xander sighed and set himself down at the computer terminal, 'Three emails. At least one of which is spam. Wonderful'  
  
Looking at the screen he saw the following.  
  
From........................ Subject.................................... Date....... Size  
Your friend V:gra..... Increase her pleasure, ma...... 3rd Feb... 12 K  
Giles........................ Mission Status Changed.......... 4th Feb... 50 K  
RJohnsonwcouncil... How can we aid you sir?.......... 4th Feb... 6 K  
  
Sighing Xander opened Giles email and began to read.  
  
----  
  
To: Xander  xander.harris   
  
From: Giles  rupert.giles   
  
Subject: Mission Status Changed.  
  
Xander,  
  
Well to be honest it's two things really, firstly there has been new information come to light that may or may not affect your current project.  
  
As discussed in prior emails we chose to go ahead and re-establish communications with W&H using the method we discussed (you were quite correct in your assumption that Andrew's flimsy grasp on reality would aid as a perfect distraction), this was not as successful as we'd have liked. However Andrew himself did return with some important information.  
  
Spike is back.  
  
----  
  
"Crap! I knew it I bloody knew it!" Xander vented at the compter. 'Whats the bleached blonde want now?'  
  
----  
  
Yes you read that correctly. It seems your hunch was correct, however he appears to currently be working alongside the rest of Angel's team in W&H. So far it is believed that he hasn't made attempted to make contact with Buffy.  
  
Luckily Buffy is in Rome at the moment, hopefully word of Spike's return shouldn't reach her yet. In fact it shouldn't reach her at all as I've threatened that if this does reach her, then I'm holding Andrew singularly responsible. But my expectations of the gossip grapevine don't hold much confidence in this remaining a secret long.   
  
----  
  
'Spike's working for W&H? Weren't we worried enough when we found out Angel was working for W&H? This can't be a good turn of events. Let's have the two souled vampires, each with a major history of evil, working for the evil law firm.' "What us? Of course we trust them to remain white hats, I mean who wouldn't?"  
  
'It might be worth getting a spy inside W&H, they might like a slayer on the payroll, though who could we trust to such a role? Oh god, it'd have to be Faith wouldn't it? She's the only one Angel would trust... and if she went under the pretense of needing some time away from us due to falling out with Wood, or arguing with Buffy or something similar then he'd likely believe her... it'd be just like when that girl from Mission Impossible Two pretends to be arreste... argghhhh, I knew those two weeks rooming with Andrew while we set up in Cleveland would have long term effects on me.'  
  
'Wonder if anyone's got Riley's contact details? Maybe we could ask him to provide a couple of those chips for emergency use...'   
  
----  
  
This increased possibility of a Spike-Buffy re-union means that learning the rules of Spike's ensoulment has increased in importance.  
  
We'll have to deal with Buffy and her likely reaction to (a) keeping Spike's return from her and (b) the details of your 'vacation' when it inevitably becomes necessary.  
  
----  
  
'She's going to kick my ass if she finds out what's been going on here. When did she go to Rome anyway? I thought she was actually going to be looking after Dawn this time.'  
  
----  
  
The second thing... well that's more complicated. Firstly let me explain that the others have been asking about you in more detail as it has now been nine weeks since you took off and only I am recieving 'phone calls'. It's still your choice as to whether or not you contact the others, but I should warn you that both Willow and Dawn are looking into locating you and paying you a visit (how they intended to achieve that I don't know exactly but between their computer skills and Willow's magic your guess is as good as mine).  
  
So I needed an excuse to buy you some time. The one that I produced and could readily explain that you were in Africa came to me after a discussion with Buffy. She wanted to know about the first watchers, the ones that took an innocent girl and basically raped her with a demon essence. I informed her that such an event was unknown to me as I believed the watchers came many decades at the earliest after the first slayer (in all likelihood it was probably some centuries). To help ease her mind I've set some of the finest researchers that remain into looking into both the earliest watcher journals and looking into the exact nature of the 'box' that informed her that it was so.  
  
From Buffy's description she believed that the both the original slayer and the original watchers (I've tried to stop her referring to them as such until we obtain proof but with no success so far) came from Africa.  
  
So when Willow and Dawn started pestering me as to your whereabouts I explained that your current errand was to try and locate any information about the people that may have been responsible for the creation of the first slayer. As this was something of a safe errand (I wasn't asking you to do anything but locate the descendants of some people from thousands of years ago), they've accepted it as one of the many things you've been doing to distract yourself from the Anya situation - I'm informing you of this in case they still decide to locate and contact you.  
  
----  
  
'Okay so they know which continent I'm on. Not that I'd mind seeing any of the old gang really... might invite some of them over so they'll know I'm okay. Might be time to start a bridge-building.'  
  
----  
  
They are all aware (as is yourself) that so far we've only been able to find two types of people that worked for the watchers, the researchers and the mercenaries. Neither of which are particularly useful as capable field agents. Some ideas have been passed around as to locating other field agents, the overall responsibility for has been handed to Willow and Kennedy, I explained that if she can find me other watchers that could perform jobs such as those yourself have been doing then I'd be more than willing to lighten your load as it were, until then unless you yourself requested time off I would honour your wishes and continue to find things that you could be involved in.  
  
I confess that was originally just an excuse to allow you a reason for being in Africa. But after discussions with a third party, I've come to the conclusion that we NEED to know about the origin of the slayers so we can find out what if any affect empowering all the potentials could have. We need to know many things: why it's always an adolescent female that's chosen (from all the slayers we've encountered only the potentials in puberty were called, the youngest seems to have been twelve when called and Kennedy was the eldest at nineteen); how did they arrange for the powers to be passed on; did the potential slayer essence that can be identified in some children already exist and if so what was it originally used for, i.e. what made them choose the girl that became the first slayer; and most importantly, if they had this power why did they ONLY choose to empower ONE girl?  
  
----  
  
'Hah. Giles fell into the exact same trap I did. Don't think too much Giles, you'll realise lots of other little things that we probably need to look into like....' Xander paused.  
  
Then he started beating his head on the desk, 'No, don't think, don't think,' each instruction in time with a collision 'last time you did that you ended up talking yourself into an African sabbatical. Take your own advice and just chill and read the email, see Xan thats all you're doing is reading the email.'  
  
Though he couldn't stop the most obvious thought from entering his head "Why the hell haven't the watchers wondered about some of those questions before?"  
  
----  
  
I've got lots of researchers looking into the earliest histories of the watchers seeing if there are any comments in any journals that might hint that someone knew more than was generally known by our time; the most secret documents of the inner council are being uncovered and access is being granted to specific groups that answer directly to myself.  
  
I consider us all to be equally responsible for this burden and I know sometime soon I'm going to have to inform the others that our decision may have consequences.   
  
I'm also looking into the history of the slayer scythe that Buffy found and allowed Willow to empower all the potentials. But so far it does not show up anywhere. Although I have dozens of researchers looking into this, it might be worth bringing up should you encounter anyone with knowledge of the origin of slayers. Oh yeah, I may have skipped that part, but here it is in all its official glory. I'm assigning you into looking for any evidence of the original tribe that created the slayer, and if you discover them see if they are aware of any reference to the slayer scythe that we used last year.  
  
----  
  
'No. No. No. No. How come 'I' come up with a plan and 'I' end up having to travel to Africa. But when 'He' comes up with a plan, its still 'me' thats running around Africa... come on Giles assign one of the others. It doesn't matter if we run into one another I can handle it.'  
  
'Except I can't can I? If I run into one of the others and THEY'RE doing this assignment then I'd have to explain why I'm in Africa.'  
  
'Dammit.'  
  
----  
  
I've assigned three watchers to be your full-time assistants for this, they are currently based in England, you can have them remain there or join you in Africa, it's your choice - I've included all their personal details and contact information on the attachment. I have instructed them that you were already on an assignment but have provided no details, I have informed them that should you wish to pursue it seperately then you are free to do so, but if you choose to bring them in with you they are to give you any help they can and not make any mention of the details until you have instructed them to do so.  
  
Good luck in your quests,  
  
Giles  
  
----  
  
'A team?'  
  
'I actually have a team?'  
  
'That answers to me and everything?'  
  
'This is so not what I was looking for when I left the house that day.'  
  
'Mind you it **is** an important mission, do do doo doo, dammmit Andrew!!! And I would have people to take care of a lot of things for me.'  
  
Xander took a look at the attachment and realised that the name of one of the watchers matched the person mentioned in the third email. He took a quick look at the email and hit reply.  
  
'Okay team, first thing you've gotta do is get me a competent guide that speaks the language and takes me off the tourist trail.'  
  
With that he began to compose his initial thoughts on the new project. 

========================

The End 


End file.
